The Four Fruits of the Śrāvaka Path
Mahāmati asks the Buddha to lay out the four fruits of the śrāvaka path in detail, so that a bodhisattva teaching sentient beings can recognize each stage precisely. The Buddha answers with three grades of stream-entry, sorted by how many further lifetimes remain, and the two kinds of the view of a fixed self it severs — one born with the person, one built up through further false thought on top of it. From there the page moves through once-returning and non-returning to arhatship itself, closing with a careful three-way distinction: the one genuine kind of arhat who has reached the peaceful path of the single vehicle, and two others who wear an arhat's form as a skillful disguise — a bodhisattva's own chosen appearance, and a buddha's transformation-body, each present in the assembly for reasons entirely their own.
Three Grades of Stream-Entry, and the Fetters They Cut
爾時大慧菩薩摩訶薩復白佛言：「世尊！唯願為說諸須陀洹、須陀洹趣差別通相。若菩薩摩訶薩，善解須陀洹趣差別通相，及斯陀含、阿那含、阿羅漢方便相，分別知已，如是如是為眾生說法。謂二無我相及二障淨，度諸地相，究竟通達，得諸如來不思議究竟境界。如眾色摩尼，善能饒益一切眾生，以一切法境界無盡身財，攝養一切。」
佛告大慧：「諦聽，諦聽！善思念之。今為汝說。」
大慧白佛言：「善哉，世尊！唯然聽受。」
佛告大慧：「有三種須陀洹、須陀洹果差別。云何為三？謂下中上。下者極七有生；中者三五有生而般涅槃；上者即彼生而般涅槃。此三種有三結，下中上。云何三結？謂身見、疑、戒取。是三結差別，上上昇進，得阿羅漢。大慧！身見有二種，謂：俱生及妄想。如緣起妄想，自性妄想。譬如依緣起自性，種種妄想自性，計著生。以彼非有、非無、非有無，無實妄想相故。愚夫妄想，種種妄想自性相計著。如熱時炎，鹿渴水想。是須陀洹妄想身見，彼以人無我攝受無性，斷除久遠無知計著。大慧！俱生者，須陀洹身見，自他身等四陰，無色相故。色生造及所造故，展轉相因相故，大種及色不集故。須陀洹觀有無品見，身見則斷。如是身見斷，貪則不生，是名身見相。大慧！疑相者，謂得法善見相故，及先二種身見妄想斷故，疑法不生。不於餘處起大師見，為淨不淨。是名疑相須陀洹斷。大慧！戒取者，云何須陀洹不取戒？謂善見受生處苦相故，是故不取。大慧！取者謂愚夫決定受習苦行，為眾樂具，故求受生；彼則不取，除回向自覺勝，離妄想，無漏法相行方便，受持戒支，是名須陀洹取戒相斷。須陀洹斷三結，貪癡不生。若須陀洹作是念：『此諸結我不成就者。』應有二過，墮身見，及諸結不斷。」
Then Mahāmati Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva again said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, I beg you to teach the general marks distinguishing every grade of stream-entry, and of one advancing toward it. Should a bodhisattva-mahāsattva rightly understand the general marks distinguishing the grades of stream-entry, and the skillful marks of once-returning, non-returning, and arhatship, discriminating and knowing each precisely, he can then teach the Dharma to sentient beings accordingly — [leading them toward] the two kinds of no-self and the purification of the two hindrances, passing through every ground to its very culmination, and attaining the inconceivable, ultimate domain of every tathāgata. Like a wish-fulfilling jewel of every color, he is thereby able to benefit every sentient being, nourishing and sustaining all of them with the inexhaustible body and resources found within the domain of every dharma."
The Buddha told Mahāmati: "Listen well! Listen well! Consider this carefully — I shall now explain it to you."
Mahāmati said to the Buddha: "Excellent, World-Honored One! I gladly receive your teaching."
The Buddha told Mahāmati: "There are three grades of distinction among stream-enterers and the fruit of stream-entry. What are the three? The lower, the middling, and the upper. The lower grade is reborn at most seven times more; the middling grade attains nirvāṇa after three or five further births; the upper grade attains nirvāṇa within that very same lifetime. These three grades correspond to three degrees — lower, middling, and upper — [in how thoroughly] the three fetters [are cut]. What are the three fetters? The view of a fixed self, doubt, and attachment to mere rules and rituals. It is by the degree to which these three fetters are cut, advancing further and further, that one attains arhatship. Mahāmati, the view of a fixed self is of two kinds: the kind born together with the person, and the kind built up through false thought. It is like [the difference between] false thought arising from dependent origination and false thought arising from own-nature: just as, in dependence on the own-nature of dependent origination, every kind of attachment to an own-nature born of false thought arises, so too here — because [that view] is neither existent, nor non-existent, nor both, it is a mark of false thought with nothing real behind it at all. The ignorant, through false thought, become attached to every kind of mark of false-thought own-nature, just as a deer, driven by thirst, mistakes the summer heat's shimmer for water. This is the false-thought view of a fixed self that a stream-enterer cuts through — he does so by way of the no-self of persons, grasping that it has no [fixed] nature at all, and thereby severing the age-old, ignorant attachment [built up around it]. Mahāmati, as for the view born together with the person: a stream-enterer [recognizes that] the view of a fixed self, whether concerning his own body or another's, has no [truly independent] form at all among the four [formless] aggregates — because form itself arises through both what makes and what is made, because [the elements] condition one another in continuous succession, and because the great elements and form itself never actually come together as one solid thing. A stream-enterer, observing that the view of both existence and non-existence [regarding a self] fails to hold up, thereby cuts through the view of a fixed self. Once the view of a fixed self is cut through in this way, craving no longer arises — this is called the mark of the view of a fixed self [being overcome]. Mahāmati, as for the mark of doubt: it is that, having rightly seen the mark of the Dharma, and having already cut through the two kinds of the false-thought view of a fixed self, doubt concerning the Dharma no longer arises — one no longer looks to any other teacher elsewhere, wondering whether he might be the pure one instead. This is called the mark of doubt that a stream-enterer cuts through. Mahāmati, as for attachment to mere rules and rituals: why does a stream-enterer not adopt such rules? Because he has rightly seen the suffering inherent in the very place [such practices] would lead him to be reborn — it is for this reason that he does not adopt them. Mahāmati, one who does adopt them is the ignorant person who is determined to undertake painful ascetic practices for the sake of gaining pleasurable things, and so seeks further rebirth on that account. A stream-enterer does not adopt such practices — except for the precepts he keeps as the skillful means of the practice belonging to the undefiled Dharma itself, turned wholly toward his own supreme self-realization and apart from false thought. This is called the mark of attachment to mere rules and rituals that a stream-enterer cuts through. A stream-enterer, having cut through these three fetters, no longer gives rise to craving or delusion. Were a stream-enterer to think, 'these fetters — I myself have not yet fully cut through them,' this would entail two faults: falling back into the view of a fixed self, and the fetters themselves remaining uncut."
The commentators are careful that the two kinds of the view of a fixed self are not simply two degrees of the same error but arise from genuinely different mechanisms: "俱生者，謂見與身俱生，如前身見，妄想復依見而起，如後邊見，故曰如緣起等，謂依緣起故起妄想自性" — "the view 'born together with the person' means that the view arises together with the very body itself, [present] from the start; false thought then arises further, in dependence on that already-present view, the way an extreme view arises on top of a more basic one — hence the comparison to dependent origination, meaning that it is in dependence on [a prior] dependent-origination-view that a further false-thought own-nature then arises." One layer is, in a sense, structurally unavoidable — bound up with simply having a body at all — while the second layer is an optional, cultivated elaboration built on top of the first, and it is specifically this second, elaborated layer that the deer-and-mirage simile targets.
On the closing warning against a stream-enterer's own self-doubt, the commentators trace the logical trap precisely: "身見本也，諸結末也，本既不除，末何由滅" — "the view of a fixed self is the root; the [other] fetters are its branches. If the root itself has not yet been removed, how could the branches possibly be eliminated?" A stream-enterer who worries that he has not genuinely cut the fetters is, by the very act of that worry, demonstrating that the view of a fixed self — the "I" doing the worrying — has quietly reasserted itself; the doubt is not humility but a symptom of the very fetter it claims concern about. On why the stream-enterer's own kept precepts do not count as the very attachment to "mere rules and rituals" just described as cut, the commentators are precise about the distinguishing feature: his practice is "除迴向自覺勝" — turned wholly toward his own supreme self-realization — rather than toward securing some further pleasant rebirth, which is exactly the motive the passage identifies as the actual fault, not rule-keeping as such.
Once-Returning, Non-Returning, and Three Kinds of Arhat
大慧白佛言：「世尊！世尊說眾多貪欲，彼何者貪斷？」
佛告大慧：「愛樂女人纏綿，貪著種種方便，身口惡業，受現在樂，種未來苦，彼則不生。所以者何？得三昧正受樂故。是故彼斷，非趣涅槃貪斷。大慧！云何斯陀含相？謂頓照色相妄想生相，見相不生。善見禪趣相故，頓來此世，盡苦際，得涅槃，是故名斯陀含。大慧！云何阿那含？謂過去未來現在色相性非性，生見過患，使妄想不生故，及結斷故，名阿那含。大慧！阿羅漢者，謂諸禪、三昧、解脫、力、明，煩惱苦妄想非性故，名阿羅漢。」
大慧白佛言：「世尊！世尊說三種阿羅漢，此說何等阿羅漢？世尊！為得寂靜一乘道？為菩薩摩訶薩方便示現阿羅漢？為佛化化？」
佛告大慧：「得寂靜一乘道聲聞，非餘。餘者，行菩薩行，及佛化化，巧方便本願故，於大眾中示現受生，為莊嚴佛眷屬故。大慧！於妄想處，種種說法，謂得果得禪。禪者入禪，悉遠離故，示現得自心現量，得果相，說名得果。復次，大慧！欲超禪無量無色界者，當離自心現量相。大慧！受想正受，超自心現量者，不然。何以故？有心量故。」
爾時，世尊欲重宣此義而說偈言：
「諸禪四無量， 無色三摩提，
一切受想滅， 心量彼無有。
須陀槃那果， 往來及不還，
及與阿羅漢， 斯等心惑亂。
禪者禪及緣， 斷知是真諦，
此則妄想量， 若覺得解脫。
Mahāmati said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, the World-Honored One has spoken of many different kinds of desire — which of them, exactly, does [a stream-enterer's own attainment] sever?"
The Buddha told Mahāmati: "The entangling desire for and attachment to women, and every kind of scheme bound up with bodily and verbal misdeeds — receiving pleasure in the present while sowing suffering for the future — this no longer arises [for him]. Why is this? Because he has attained the very bliss of the true attainment of samādhi itself. It is for this reason that this particular desire is severed — though it is not, by this alone, the severing of every desire that would still be needed to reach nirvāṇa itself. Mahāmati, what is the mark of a once-returner? It is that, illuminating all at once the false thought bound up with form, [both] the mark of its arising and the mark of [any further] view of it no longer arise. Having rightly seen the mark that leads toward dhyāna, he comes back to this world only once more, reaches the very limit of suffering, and attains nirvāṇa — it is for this reason that he is called a once-returner. Mahāmati, what is a non-returner? It is one who, [seeing] that the mark of form, past, future, and present, has no fixed nature at all, and thereby [freed of] the fault of any view [of it] arising, no longer gives rise to false thought, and has, moreover, cut through the [remaining] fetters — this is called a non-returner. Mahāmati, an arhat is one who, through every dhyāna, samādhi, liberation, power, and [threefold] knowledge, [sees] that affliction, suffering, and the false thought bound up with them have no fixed nature at all — this is called an arhat."
Mahāmati said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, the World-Honored One has spoken of three kinds of arhat — which kind of arhat does this present teaching refer to? World-Honored One, is it the one who has attained the peaceful path of the single vehicle? Or a bodhisattva-mahāsattva skillfully manifesting the appearance of an arhat? Or a buddha's own transformation, manifesting as one?"
The Buddha told Mahāmati: "It is the śrāvaka who has attained the peaceful path of the single vehicle — not the other two. The other two practice the bodhisattva's own conduct, or are a buddha's own transformation; through the skillful means of their own original vow, they manifest being born within the great assembly, so as to adorn a buddha's own retinue. Mahāmati, it is with respect to those still caught in false thought that every kind of teaching is given, speaking of 'attaining the fruit' and 'attaining dhyāna.' As for one who practices dhyāna and enters dhyāna: it is precisely because he is entirely apart from all of that that he is able to manifest, as the very measure of his own mind, the appearance of attaining the fruit — which is [only then] spoken of as 'attaining the fruit.' Furthermore, Mahāmati, one who wishes to pass beyond the dhyānas, the immeasurables, and the formless realms should leave behind the very mark of the measure of his own mind. Mahāmati, [merely] attaining the true attainment of the cessation of feeling and perception is not, in itself, passing beyond the measure of one's own mind. Why is this? Because [even that state] still involves the measure of mind."
Then the World-Honored One, wishing to restate this meaning, spoke in verse: "Every dhyāna, the four immeasurables, the formless absorptions,
every cessation of feeling and perception — none of these are themselves apart from the measure of mind.
The fruit of stream-entry, of once-returning and of non-returning,
and arhatship as well — in every one of these, the mind is still in some confusion.
One who practices dhyāna, the dhyāna itself, and its very object — cutting these off and knowing the noble truths —
this, too, is still the measure of false thought; only in awakening to this is liberation actually attained."
The commentators are explicit that the Buddha's answer identifies exactly one of the three named "arhats" as a genuine arhat, treating the other two as something else entirely wearing the same title: "得寂靜一乘道者，一實也；菩薩方便示現及佛化化者，二權也" — "the one who has attained the peaceful path of the single vehicle is the single real [arhat]; the bodhisattva's skillful manifestation and the buddha's own transformation are the two provisional [cases, arhats in appearance only]." The two provisional cases are not lesser or lesser-attained beings pretending to a status beyond them — they are already bodhisattvas or buddhas, deliberately choosing to appear within the assembly in an arhat's more modest form, "為莊嚴佛眷屬故" ("so as to adorn a buddha's own retinue"), for reasons of their own compassionate strategy rather than any actual limitation in their own realization.
On why "attaining the true attainment of the cessation of feeling and perception" is specifically denied the status of passing beyond the measure of mind, the commentators locate the residual attachment precisely: "以其取滅受想亦是心量，故須一切捨離皆不可得" — "because even grasping at the cessation of feeling and perception is itself still a measure of mind, one must leave behind absolutely everything, down to the very point where nothing at all remains to be apprehended." They close with a direct citation from the *Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment* as the sharpest possible statement of the same point: "《圓覺經》所謂『照與照者同時寂滅』斯得之矣" — "this is exactly what the *Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment* means by 'the illumination and the one who illuminates are both, together, utterly stilled at once.'" Even the meditator's own act of observing that feeling and perception have ceased is itself one more thing that must, in the end, be let go of — the observer cannot survive as a privileged exception to the very cessation he is observing.
Part 19 Complete
This closes Part 19: three grades of stream-entry sorted by remaining lifetimes, the two kinds of the view of a fixed self a stream-enterer cuts through, once-returning and non-returning, arhatship itself, and the careful three-way distinction between the one genuine arhat and the bodhisattva and buddha who wear that same title as a skillful, chosen appearance. Part 20 turns to the two kinds of awareness a bodhisattva must master — the awareness that observes ultimate truth apart from the four extremes, and the awareness bound up with the four great elements and how they are provisionally established — carrying a bodhisattva, once both are perfected, all the way to the Ground of Joy and beyond.
Continue to Part 20 — Two Kinds of Awareness, and the Four Great Elements →